Chamber and committees

Regarding (a), quasi-judicial panels:

• There are a wide variety of organisations that could be considered quasi-judicial bodies with their own constitutions, legislative underpinnings and governance arrangements. The position in respect of political balance would need to be checked with each organisation.
• Regarding regulated Ministerial Appointments to public body boards that could be considered a quasi-judicial body, all applications are considered individually on their merits. The Ethical Standards Commissioner regulates this area and their Code of Practice for Public Appointments (the ‘Code’) and associated Code Guidance (both 2022) set out the position relating to political activity. In summary, candidates are required to provide information relating to their political activity. It is not necessarily a bar to appointment but the appointing panel will take the information into account as part of the Fit and Proper Person test when assessing ability to perform in role. When an individual is appointed, any political activity is declared in the news release announcing the appointment.

Regarding (b), local authority decision-making bodies:

• Councils (and potentially also their decision-making bodies) are independent bodies with their own powers, responsibilities, governing constitutions, legislative underpinnings and governance arrangements. The position in respect of political balance would need to be checked with each organisation.
• Scottish Ministers have committed to respecting local government’s democratic mandate as part of the Verity House Agreement. The view of the Scottish Government is that locally elected representatives are best placed to prioritise the needs of the local community.

The list of public appointments by public body, which was published on 25 March 2025, is an exhaustive list of Ministerial regulated public appointments only. Ministerial regulated public appointments are those governed by the Ethical Standards Commissioner and the Code of Conduct for Public Appointments (2022).

The list is intended to be updated regularly so that it reflects recently made appointments. It was corrected on 25 March 2025 following the identification of errors.

Details added to the spreadsheet should be correct at the point of the appointment commencing. These details may change over time and become out of date. A process is underway to update the spreadsheet to ensure accuracy, including rectification of any other errors identified, and it will be re-published when complete.

The list of public appointments by public body, which was published on 25 March 2025, is an exhaustive list of Ministerial regulated public appointments only. Ministerial regulated public appointments are those governed by the Ethical Standards Commissioner and the Code of Conduct for Public Appointments (2022).

The list is intended to be updated regularly so that it reflects recently made appointments. It was corrected on 25 March 2025 following the identification of errors.

Details added to the spreadsheet should be correct at the point of the appointment commencing. These details may change over time and become out of date. A process is underway to update the spreadsheet to ensure accuracy, including rectification of any other errors identified, and it will be re-published when complete.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with all our partners to call for a long-term return to tariff free trading that has been mutually beneficial for the Scottish and US spirits sectors, as part of a wider UK-US negotiated solution. I met with the UK Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security on 2 April to discuss this. The Deputy First Minister met with the US Chamber of Commerce on 3 April and the First Minister met with senior figures in the whisky sector in New York on 7 April to hear directly from the business leaders involved and hosted a business round table which included the Scotch Whisky Association and the Food and Drink Federation on 16 April. The First Minister also met with the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, on the 11 April to discuss tariffs amongst other topics.

We are acutely aware of the risk tariffs on the UK and globally pose on Scottish businesses.

We have carried out initial analysis of trade statistics to understand Scottish exposure to US trade across key products and where that may differ from the UK economy.

The First Minister discussed the matter with the Prime Minister on 11 April and made clear urgent action should be taken to protect Scotland’s economic interests.

It is estimated that the Single Scottish Estate (SSE) Programme generated savings of £9.274m over the 2024-25 financial year. A total of £41m of savings and benefits has been secured by the SSE Programme overall.

We have consistently called for the UK Government to remove the two-child cap at source. Fixing a broken Universal Credit system would be the best way to alleviate the impacts of the pernicious two-child cap, however it is clear that despite repeated calls on them to do so, the Scottish Government can no longer wait for action. That is why we are taking decisive action as early as possible, using the limited social security powers that we have, to scrap the cap in Scotland. Our actions will result in an estimated 20,000 fewer children living in relative poverty in 2026-27.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission’s report on “Mitigating the two-child limit and the Scottish Budget” states, “it is likely that the proposed mitigation payments would not generate large behavioural responses over and above the ways that families may already have adapted to the Scottish Child Payment.”

Our own published analysis of how Scottish Child Payment interacts with the labour market concludes that it is not currently negatively affecting work incentives at scale in the economy.

However, we will continue to analyse the impact of Scottish Child Payment on work incentives, and of the two-child cap mitigation when it is introduced.

Statistics on pensioner household income by UK country and English region are published by the Department for Work and Pensions. The median income for these households is presented in the following table.

Median weekly equivalised household income for pensioner households in £ (in 2023-24 prices), before housing costs

The Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) requires that all land or property declared as surplus should be disposed of as quickly as possible and sets out a number of ways disposals can achieve best value for money and wider public benefit.

In the last 3 years, Scottish Government has made one sale of a strip of land at Woodhouselee, Midlothian to Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). This generated £15,000 of revenue.

Revenue generated from land or property sales is collected centrally by Scottish Government Finance then redistributed across Government depending on business need.

Scottish Government uses the Microsoft 365 product suite to support shared services across 21,000 users in 55 government sector organisations. Within that suite, Microsoft Teams is the component used for videoconferencing, but also supports an array of uses such as file sharing, messaging, telephony, calendar management, and mass corporate notification. As such, the costs provided here are for the total costs of Microsoft product tools as the components are not priced individually.

Streamlining product purchase and usage in this way has enabled Scottish Government to reduce or eliminate spend in other areas. The tool is highly resilient and supports Scottish Government in continuing to operate during disruptive events. It has also cut travel significantly during routine operating.

The following table shows the total amounts spent on Microsoft subscriptions over the past five years. There is a charge for Skype in 2020-2021, as we were transitioning from this service to Microsoft Teams.

Overall, the move to Microsoft cloud services has been driven by a focus on delivering value for money while building business resiliency. Any Microsoft procurement is managed through a government framework in order to ensure the best deal possible and safeguard the public purse.